Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended
"...This piece is new to the Felder repertoire and needs more work. One problem is that Felder, although a very enigmatic performer and a solid vocalist, is not exactly credible as a 90 year old. He seems to drop his subject's age much of the time, but it is never quite clear where are the lines between present-tense narration and flashback. Similarly, Felder needs to better frame a character of whom few in his audience will have heard - we get to the Lincoln stuff late in the 85-minute show, which leaves you wondering how and why this fellow is the right connective tissue for an exploration of this music and period, even though he appears to have had a few famous folks in his care. Scrambling the chronology would be one useful way forward, or weaving this music into Lincoln's fateful last day in a more organic fashion, or otherwise making the case for why Leale, a footnote to American history, is a cipher for American complexity."
Chicago Sun Times - Highly Recommended
"...More importantly, Felder evokes a defining period in our history, using all the tools of the master storyteller he displayed in previous one-man shows about George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein and Beethoven. This time around he does not sit at the piano, but he has composed a lushly beautiful score laced with the songs of Lincoln's contemporary, Stephen Foster, and exquisitely played by a mostly shrouded onstage orchestra. The score functions almost like a film soundtrack."
Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended
"...Felder’s an engaging stage presence, but his script tries too hard to establish Leale as a 19th-century Forrest Gump, even if the details—He saw the Booth brothers perform Julius Caesar’s assassination weeks before Lincoln’s! He encountered Walt Whitman volunteering at a Union Army hospital!—are true to life. And the dialogue gets mired down in repetition and cliché (the phrase “whatever the cost” recurs again and again). Perhaps the facts of Lincoln’s final days are just too well-known in our current cultural moment for even a new perspective to escape dramatic inertia."
ShowBizChicago - Highly Recommended
"...If you love history, you will love this play. If you have seen and appreciate Hershey Felder's other productions, you will love this play. An American Story successfully transports you through time to experience history in progress. It is a must see and not to be missed during its short run. You will definitely leave the theater with WOW expression. I know I did!"
Stage and Cinema - Highly Recommended
"...Hershey Felder has already regaled audiences at the Royal George Theatre with his uncanny and heartfelt recreations of George Gershwin, George M. Cohan, Frederic Chopin, Leonard Bernstein and Ludwig van Beethoven, honoring and invigorating the music as much as he concentrated their life stories. Now he delivers a solo tour de force, An American Story for Actor and Orchestra, enjoying a Chicago premiere after tryouts in Los Angeles and San Diego. The show has been tinkered with since Stage and Cinema reviewed the LA production, which was originally directed by Joel Zwick and titled Lincoln: An American Story. Now, director Trevor Hay has come on board and the result is a highly rewarding entertainment."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...This emotionally packed drama with music grabbed the opening day audience and kept them transfixed throughout. This may be Hershey Felder's finest show. Certainly it is his most unique historical work that fills us in on an unknown historical figure as it is Felder's most challenging acting role. It is a tight, powerful, and expressive glimpse both into history and 19th Century America culture. Hershey Felder once again proves that he is a master of stage presence. He is the finest storyteller of our time. Don't miss his stunning work."
Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended
"...The Royal George is an ideal theater for an intimate production such as this ( it also served well for his previous productions) and in fact, it appears that Mr. Felder has plans to follow this production with many other intimate stories, of which he will be producer, not performer. I for one, would love to see more of his shows and watch him bring characters to life, but knowing how detail orientated he is, I am sure the shows he brings in will satisfy our thirst for quality theater on this intimate stgae."
Chicagoland Theater Reviews - Highly Recommended
"...Hershey Felder has brought several shows to the Royal George Theater, most of them portraits of famous composers and generally successful in their combination of words and music, especially the portrait of George Gershwin. But those presentations were a mere prologue to Felder's spellbinding "An American Story for Actor and Orchestra" currently at the Royal George in a must-see production."
